I don't want to clutter my computer with yet another "free" program, so would you mind downloading it and printing it as a pdf and reposting it? I think you'll find more teachers would be willing to assess it for you.

John

John -- I completely understand what you mean about clutter with free programs -- however, Scorch and musicnotes.com allows you to print digital downloads of thousands of pieces of music both classical and non. You purchase the piece and download it immediately. I use it but mostly when I have a voice student who needs a piece "right now" -- some competitions and organizations will allow you to use these pieces in the judges room and some won't. It is a LEGAL purchase and it prints on the copy that the piece is for the EXCLUSIVE use of "you" the purchaser but that doesn't keep anyone from making a "good" copy from the REAL piece.

Just a little info on musicnotes and scorch

I am wondering what level of ability you think is needed to play this Billy Joel piece: beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Thanks for the help.

http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/scorch.asp?ppn=SC0095562

It's not a matter of level.

You need to be able to handle chords, octaves, syncopated rhythms, and maintain a fairly quick tempo without tensing up.

It also helps a great deal if you can improvise and fill out some of the texture - piano/vocal scores like these can sound a bit sparse if you just play the piano part alone.

Well, you can give a piece a general level of skill required to play it and that is what I would like to know.

The player of this music needs an adult hand size because of the octaves and 7ths int the RH and the octaves in the LH.

The LH never relaxes with constant 8th note octaves. M1-M9 is consistent D, then each measure changes position frequently with one measure being half steps. One needs to be able to carry off the LH by itself, so I would make that a complete LH study and build up the changes on the 1st beats of the measures when they appear which would provide you with a steady beat with memory recall and stamina in the LH. To make sure your LH has "enough" steady beats, while practicing I would say 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 over and over or reduce them to ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti.

Finding the chords on the keyboard with the correct spellings, hands shapes, and fingerings is going to be a challenge: The RH requires 5 finger positions for root chords, 6th and 7ths. So I would suggest you know all root chord positions (12) and be able to recognize them on the page when they appear. You could also improve recognition of the other chords 6th and 7th by knowing and doing and recognizing 1st and 2nd inversions of the root chords. Then when you see a 7th you could just add the 7th to the 5 finger position.

The

I teach by reading intervals, distance, and direction and looking for a note from one chord which reappears in the next chord - these associations save you lots of time and help you create good fingering by looking for the 5 finger position. I also teach my students to look for landmarks of all C's on the piano - then when one is in the music - you can find it easily and assign a finger number based on what is around it.

Do you do tied notes (syncopated rhythms)easily? If not, you're going to need to do a RH rhythm study of ties and rests.

Can you play a major scale in D for 2 octaves? Chords and I,IV,V progressions in D scale? That would assist you in comfort level and finding notes.

There are lots of accidentals in the music: Do you handle those easily and accurately?

How's your hand coordination? It's a challenge to choose partner hands when you have such a busy LH moving along. So recommending slow and deliberate practice in sections when you begin to put it together. Not recommended you play from beginning to end when practicing.

If you sight read really well, you could do the practice with hands together, I can play this piece and most Billy Joel on sight with no prep and have it sound professional.

I suggest that you take the lyrics and voice part and make an organized study of it too - with counting specifically, phrasing and accents in the words part of what you are looking for.

The level? Because of the key and accidentals, the rhythms, the chords, and the hand movement and coordination challenges: I'd say it's about a 5th grade level. I'd assign it there because I'd expect my sight reading student to be able to read the majority of it and give a good playback - what would be left would be the continuity and the "Billy Joel" style to work on. So, I'm saying 5th level which is not necessarily the number of years the student has been studying.

A 3rd year student who really wanted to could spend a month or two putting it together, but the piece would probably still be a little over their head to "perform" - the stamina and endurance is demanding. We also don't want to tighten up all relexes and not be able to play anything else because of overworking and potential damage to the body.

Many other pop pieces would have come before this to build the reading and finding skills of the pianist.

If you tell us more about yourself and what your question means to you, you might get a few different responses.

I did an analysis first of the contents so that you could follow the difficulty factor I think is involved. This is how I teach my students to analyze what kind of luck they are going to have with a piece.

I hope this helps you. It took a chunk (20 minutes) of time to look at it and to post.

Betty Patnude